Population Size: 895,376
Total Funding Requested: $13,631,307.60 (five-year period of performance, all three Component A Strategies)
A1. Workforce: $9,653,725.63 (five-year period of performance)
A2. Foundational capabilities: $544,951.59 (one-year)
A3. Data modernization: $250,564.80 (one-year)
The South Dakota Department of Health (SDDOH) is seeking $10,449,242 to provide supplemental support for critical public health infrastructure investments under all three Component A strategies: A1. Workforce, A2. Foundational capabilities, and A3. Data modernization. The overall purpose of this funding is to retain and add public health professionals, many of whom have existing funding sources that end in the near future. Without new federal dollars, SDDOH will not be able to sustain these key personnel. Additional funding will resume, revitalize, or in some cases start efforts to improve internal operations and capabilities which will lead to increased efficiencies and data modernization that benefits all health care partners therefore impacting all South Dakotans. The Public Health Infrastructure investment will be led by two new positions – Workforce Director and Data Modernization Director – and create new roles to include a Public Health Accreditation Lead, a Licensure and Safety Director, and a Program Specialist responsible for evaluation and performance measures as well as other departmentwide grant management support (i.e., grant writing, reports, contracts). This team will lead the development of needs assessments and strategic plans, implementation aligned to those foundational documents, opportunities to collaborate, provide training, enhance communications, and improve internal processes and procedures. All work will be guided by evidence-driven planning to make resources are prioritized to best meet the needs of today and plan for need of the future. SDDOH will provide resources to local jurisdictions and focus on areas of greatest need including target populations experiencing health disparities.
More than 40 percent of Strategy A1. Workforce funds will be dedicated to supporting the City of Sioux Falls local health department and other local areas. SDDOH is the only eligible entity in the state of South Dakota for this funding opportunity. Also, with the exception of one city, South Dakota does not have local health departments.